Doug Gilmour: The What If Game

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Playing what if will drive you crazy, dude.

when I first started getting into hockey when I was 8 years old in 1998. At that point I was i guess a blues fan, but mostly just a fan of the NHL and all the teams and players (my favorite players were shanahan, forsberg, jagr, etc). So it came as quite a shock when my dad told me how the blues used to have gilmour, stevens, shanahan, gretzky, and so on….It’s a shame they were never able to bring it all together back then. I was too young to realize keenan’s impact or any of the affairs or sexual assaults and I couldnt understand why we would get rid of shanahan or brind’amour etc. haha.

 Side note- I also remember my first game in maybe 98 or 99- blues lost to the coyotes in OT on a goal by tkachuk.

Naturally, I played as St. Louis more often than not but my buddies and I would occasionally decide that we couldn’t use the Blues.

My back-up team was the Leafs, followed by Philly.

When my older cousin told me that the Blues used to have Gilmour and Brind’amour, I was beside myself.

Then one of my Dad’s buddies told me stories of when Oates and Stevens wore the note.

I literally did not believe him.

Thanks

I need a drink.

I posited yesterday at some point as to whether or not Doug Gilmour had the rumors swirling around him about the babysitter as to whether or not he would have been a Hall of Fame player. We’ll never know the answer to that, but we DO know that he would have been teammates with a LOADED Blues lineup that included Hull, Oates, Stevens, Brind’Amour plus the likes of Rick Meagher, and so on and so forth . . . he would have produced under those circumstances, I’m sure.

Part of the torture of being a lifelong Blues fan (and those of you who have been alive longer than I know MUCH more about this than I do, believe me) is seeing good players – sometimes, GREAT players – go elsewhere and have success. It’s even worse when I see one of them raise the Cup. Gilmour is a prime example of this.

You could argue many things as to why this shit happens to the Blues and hardly against any other teams ad nauseum. You could even say the Blues are cursed, though if you suggest this to me, I’ll say you’re wrong. You could suggest ownership of this franchise has always sucked, but that hasn’t always been the case. You could say it’s just simple bad luck, and I might side with you.

But the fact is, good players seem to get away from our beloved Blue Note. And here’s another one that did.

Can you imagine a powerplay line of Stevens, Hull, Oates, and Gilmour?? Does any team even try to hit someone out of fear of being a man down against that line? And am I the only one who forgot that Stevens has had 70 point seasons?

I’m so glad Doug is in the Hall of Fame, crowded and questionable as it is.
Where do you think my 9393 came from?

I always viewed the Blues as the team that is more “cursed”, or, in better terms, unlucky. The Cubs usually aren’t good enough to win the series (save 02, in which they were the best team by a lot and rolled over when they got an excuse in Bartman. Wasn’t a good excuse, but they sure used it)

The Blues might have the best list of former players in the last 25 years save the Wings. Seriously, take the best players of the Blues in the last 25 years into 4 forward lines, 3 defensive pairings, and 2 goalies. Looking at that will make you want to drink heavily. More so then usual, at least.

1) wining cures all ills

2) no st. louis team kept anyone with a hinted at or even unknown character issues

1+2 = keither hernandez to the mets for neil allen and rick owenby

lonnie smith, also a druggie, was traded for the slightly more useful john morris

why what other cardinals secretely were in on this cocaine thing ct ? you ask

walking underwear would go to for tim conroy and mike heath.

obviously hernandez and smith and andujar were guilty. proven so. so that might be a difference, but at the time of the hernandez trade none of that was made known. whitey not only jetisoned hernandez he took heat for it and did not have the support of the post disgrace to back him up

it took the la rams coming here to change all our sports into having an attitude that there is no player, no crime, no trait, that shouldnt be willinging used to promote the team.

on oates? at the time i was happy to see him go, forcing a new contract after getting one? since then, i’ve heard more than once, that the second re-do was a handshake promise.

meh, happens everywhere. IF management told him they would look at things, shook his hand, then didnt do so, i’ve little concern about his response today.

and had the blues one, heck if the blues were even a legitimate contender. not a single one of those would count

heck you even left off “now drafting for your st louis blues… no one. the team couldnt be bothered to drat anyone. it wants to go to canada. it doesnt need any more players. oktnxbai:”

drink everytime the blues trade away a hall of famer

Sorry but I thought he was an assbag……….

We went to a game the year he was with Chicago…..not too long before he retired…..and we were like 6 rows off the ice….I was drunk and during a play stoppage I stood up and yelled….“HEY GILMOUR!!! HOWS YOUR BABYSITTER??”….the crowd laughed and made all kinds of noise…..then he looked up right at me and gave me a crotch grab…..it made the whole section we were sitting in hate him that very moment……and people let him have it the rest of the game……

but like I said….I never liked him to begin with…….

Fuck Mike Keenan

About the babysitter incident. I thought Gilmour was a great player and scratched my head when he left. Then again, I didn’t read the St. Louis papers or Sports Illustrated or any other regional or national publication, so it was just “Gilmour Traded” in the Journal-Register. The game broadcasts didn’t really say anything, either. I didn’t realize that it was more than just a shitty business move.

1) wining cures all ills

The book Blue Fire: A Season Inside the St. Louis Blues argues that the 90-91 team was our best shot, and I’d have to agree. The bone-headed trade to Vancouver destroyed the team chemistry, and we can’t blame Keenan for that one.

you open wide for that nasty shit hoping it will make it all better and still, your toes curl up from the ICK!!